Major travel FAIL

[talllikejerryhall]

I am not in Greece right now, nursing a glass of rose while my daughter frolics on the beach. I am sat in slightly chilly hotel room, ten minutes from Gatwick airport, gradually recovering from the horror of this morning.

We were on time. All was well. We’d gone to pret, had some porridge, it was 430am, but who cares, we were off to GREECE, baby!

I have a little pootle around the shops, come back and DH says he’s gonna pop to WH Smith with DD. I’m like yeah, cool.

Then, I wait. Then wait some more. I’m beginning to feel alarmed as it’s 530 and our flight’s at 5.55.

Can’t see em. I call his various phones (man’s got more phones than a drug dealer) and can’t get through (though not a good one).

Then, I see them like distant specks in the flow of airport humanity.

I’m like WTF dude, we are gonna be late!

Look at the board with alarm to see our destinations isn’t there 🤔

Grab some guy with a lanyard and beg him to tell me which gate to go to - he’s nice, starts fiddling with his phone (probably a little frightened). His internet won’t connect.

A cold sweat is beginning to form - we run to the information kiosk where an overweight blonde lady is asking a making an inquiry about the vegan options on her flight.

She can see by the crazed look on my face that now is a good time to step aside.

The easyJet lady gives it to me straight: you’ve missed the flight - the gate closed five minutes ago.

But she gives me the gate number! 🙌

And I live in a beautiful place called Triumphant Denial - so I shout DH and jog heavily, lugging DD in ever more uncomfortable positions. Out of my way folks, we have a plane to catch 🙋🏻‍♀️

We finally get there and i see the EasyJet lady and I beg - implore her - to let us on the flight, tears filling my eyes.

She has no idea what the hell im talking about - she just got here and she’s opening the gate for the next flight.

The penny is dropping through the air... and thud. We have missed the goddamn flight. I look at DH all ready to lose my shit, but you know what - losing my shit isn’t going to magically transport us to Thessaloniki. My rage is an awesome thing, but it doesn’t propel me though the sky - I KNOW THIS.

So we trudge back up to the information kiosk and EasyJet lady is sat there looking at us with a mixture of mild derision and pity - the pity was the WORST. We sit there waiting to be taking back through security, looking like the most miserable, unhappy, opposite-of-holiday-makers gang you could imagine. Like, hmmm I don’t think I wanna get on a plane with those weirdos, they literally look suicidal.

We are joined the other idiots who somehow managed to miss their flights WHILE IN THE AIRPORT. No one’s making eye contact.

We rebook our flights for tomorrow and agree that waking up at 2am in woodford is too ground hog day for words and besides we are TIRED.

So here I am, listening to DD gently snore and recording the tale of our epic idiocy, trying to get DH to pore through the travel insurance to see if here is any way we can somehow recoup the £400 we’ve spent on this almighty screw up. He says that there’s no insurance for being an idiot.

But hope springs eternal.

You know what is REALLY annoying about this whole fiasco? He didn’t even BUY the thing he was queuing for, cause he got tired of waiting.

This is why I immediately take my own and ds boarding passes as dh always wanders off and is the last one jumping onto the plane just as the doors are about to close. It's too stressful and I've told him I'm not missing my holiday!

I'm extremely relaxed about timings for things usually late for everything because I'm a total fucking idiot. In the last 2 years I've:

• Nearly missed a flight because the motorway was shut at night and I didn't realise and couldn't find my way to Manchester airport as the satnav kept directing me back on to the motorway and I was too panicked and frantic to pull over and turn on the 'no motorways' option.

• Got the train the next time to avoid the above but calculated train times wrong and had to end up being fasttracked through security and sprinting to the gate.

• So drove the next time, avoided motorways to Manchester but ended up getting stuck in Monday morning rush hour so had to sprint to gate again (and friend had a wee in the footwell of the car because we didn't have time to pull over for her to go ).

• And most recently I nearly missed a flight home from Berlin because I was in duty free buying sunglasses.

• Not flight related but last week I almost missed an important work train because I was in Pret choosing my breakfast. Had to SPRINT down the platform. I honestly hate myself .

If you're flying easyJet and print out your boarding cards yourself, then no, the gate info. isn't on the cards.

Time to get with the modern era and use the app for your boarding pass then. Sends you alerts and everything :-)

Rickandmorts - thank you for making me feel less alone 🙏 😂

And no, not for a novel - was just passing time in hotel, laughing at the stupidity of the events, and moved to share in case anyone had done similar - but thanks for the feedback

Hi!

I'm sorry but your post did make my chuckle a bit - it was so entertaining!

To make you feel better something very similar happened to me and a friend when we were going to China. To cut a long story short we had a stop over at Amsterdam, I read the gate number and we sat waiting wondering where our plane was only to later find out we were sitting outside the wrong gate!

We had to pay about £200 each for the next flight which was 10 hours later. It was the longest journey to China!

Other than that I've come close to missing lots of flights but that was my actual first one.

Unfortunately insurance won't cover - never mind, you have a good story and so much leverage over your husbands big fat mistake!

Have a good trip for when you do get there x

That's extraordinarily weird and stupid behaviour. I can't quite get my head around it. You just pootled around until 25 minutes before the flight left? And didn't once check the departure board?

Looks like you've offended the professionally offended, OP.

Or the people who just aren't judgemental cunts?

rickandmorts

I do understand that not everyone can be as anally retentive organised as me but your post gives me heart palpitations. I just can't imagine being in that sort of position over and over again!

I don’t understand why everyone keeps saying the gate is on their ticket.

Sometimes it is, but I still have tickets from last weekend’s holiday and three out of the five legs do not have the gate on the ticket. (Aer Lingus)

No, the gate number won't be on the boarding card, but the gate time will be and with Easyjet it says that your gate closes either 30 or 40 minutes before the scheduled departure time.

You need to watch the airport screens and when the gate is listed, make sure you are at the gate before the time that it closes. 9 times out of 10, they won't close the gate until 10/20 minutes before the scheduled departure time, but they have the right to, so you therefore need to be at the gate at the right time.

You also need to keep an eye on the screens/what is happening at the gate, because sometimes there are last minute gate changes, so you don't want to be sat at the gate while everyone else buggers off to another one.

I have no idea why you didn’t give up waiting for your bellend DH and go and find your flight. Would have been the cheaper and more sensible option.

We did something similar, we somehow missed a flight to New York by sitting at the wrong gate (they were very badly signed and there were no announcements ). We fly all the time, lived abroad for years etc! We felt like total idiots, we won't do it again in a hurry! Waiting to be escorted out of departures, paying another £1,200 for new flights and having to wait in the airport for 8 hours until we could check in for the new flight was the worst. You are definitely not alone OP!

I had a shock at an airport check in recently. We had plenty of time but the Italian lady was saying "gate closed, gate closed" and wouldn't let us through. I was about to burst into tears when I realised she meant that it wasn't open yet, we were too early. 😅

I once almost missed a flight as I thought the count down on the board was how long till the gate opened. Not till it shut. There was a huge queue for security. Fortunately the place was delayed!

amused honestly I don't have any explanation other than the fact I'm a total idiot. I annoy myself!! Ooh thought of another, had to be on a coach at a certain time in Dubrovnik that was taking us elsewhere in Croatia. Did a walk round the walls but didn't leave enough time so ended up having to run it, in flip flops and 30 degree heat. We weren't popular when we ran on the coach sweating and apologising profusely .

Never missed a flight but did once sit on the platform at Milton Keynes station once watching my train leave. I don't know why.

Given that with easyjet, your boarding pass is on your phone, you can literally track the incoming flight fight on the easyjet app AND it gives you the gate number/time the gate CLOSES - what on earth were you playing at?
You are very lucky there are daily flights to your destination.

I personally would always get to the gate 40 minutes before departure time. Some airlines are really quick to board and even though it may be 20 minutes before departure they will close the doors.
I’ve seen so many people waving from the departure lounge trying to get on but the door is shut. So stressful for everyone.

Oh and in many airports now they don’t call the plane Is ready for boarding nor do they call late passengers. Some do but many don’t. I really really wouldn’t rely on it.

Op
Greece will be just as heavenly as ever when you get there, I guarantee

Running down clock at Gatwick and things are sloooooow, so thank you for the tales of travel screw ups and near misses - they've given me some much needed perspective.

EasyJet app downloaded and we've solemnly vowed never to be so ridiculous ever again.

Camping out at the gate the moment it's open and getting on that flight, with or without DH.

Barbara Sometimes the gate number will be on the boarding card.

Here’s the one out of the five legs from this week with the gate on the boarding card. Pretty sure I’ve got an Air Canada one somewhere upstairs from last summer with the gate on it as well. It’s not uncommon (nor is it not uncommon to not have the gate either).

(Shuffles in)

We once managed to miss 2 flights in the one day...

Not connecting flights, but missed first one rebooked, DP (who was the reason we were late)then revealed to me he had forgot his passport.

So we rush home; get passport; miss flight by about 5 minutes due to traffic.

At this point I burst in to tears (trip was for a sad event); luckily the lady took pity on me; and rang round and found us another flight.

He's never lived it down. . .

@HobNobcentral NO WAY 😂

This is quite impressive OP. How did you not notice it was getting so close to your flight time?

I once nearly missed a flight, no fault of my own was due to airport transport issues. Me and DP ended up throwing our stuff through check in and running through the airport, they did keep the gate open for us though to be fair and as we were running they were calling our names over the tannoy a lot.

I've also been waiting for flights where people havent turned up when they've checked it, normally they do wait a bit, was there no tannoy? So I feel like you must have been more than just cutting it a bit fine!

If my DP did this Is a) be in Greece without him and b) never speak to him again! Why didn't you at least go to the gate and wait for him? Then you could at least try and get them to hold it open/go without him